NGO planes are forbidden from departing from five Italian airports near migrant routes on the Mediterranean, officials said this week. Here's more background on the decision.
NGO planes that patrol Mediterranean waters for migrant vessels in distress will no longer be able to depart from airports in Sicily, Italy's civil aviation authority announced this week.
Here's some background on the specifics of the decision.
No flights from Sicilian airports
Italy's National Entity for Civil Aviation (ENAC) -- a department of the Ministry of Transport, which is headed by Matteo Salvini -- signed five ordinances barring NGO planes from departing the Sicilian airports of Palermo (Punta Raisi and Bocca di Falco), Lampedusa, Pantelleria and Trapani.
According to the ordinance, these civil airplanes not only violate "the regulative legal framework of the Search and Rescue missions" but also risk "compromising the safety of migrant people who are not assisted by the current protocols approved by the Maritime Authority."
ENAC, in the ordinance, further stated that "anyone who takes part in Search and Rescue operations outside the legal provisions of the framework currently in place is punished with sanctions listed in the navigation code, and additional sanctions such as the administrative detention of the airplane."
Nadir rescue
While the new ordinance was announced, German NGO Resquship vessel Nadir rescued a dinghy carrying 57 migrants in international waters.